Just because they can't see, it doesn't mean that blind people can't be artists. Indeed, there's NEBA - the National Exhibits of Blind Artists - an organization dedicated to showcasing the work of artists who are blind or visually impaired.

But can a blind person be a successful photographer? Meet Rosita McKenzie, 56, from Portobello, Scotland. Her photographs are now being showcased in an arts festival in Edinburgh:

Speaking to the BBC Scotland news website she said she never thought she would be able to take photographs.

She said: "This whole process helps me to burn something into my memory, something I can use to recall as images in your head can become less clear.

"People explain to me more about the things that are around me when I have my camera. [...]

"I have had photographers say that I have captured things they would not have been able to for example I took a picture of a bridge of the Edinburgh Canal and in the bottom right hand corner there was half an image of a jogger.

I had 20/20 vision just 8 years ago and got an eye condition that is incurable and now I am registered legally blind. This condition can happen to anyone so I would like to say to sighted people this too can happen to you. Do not take your sight for granted as I did and please do not make fun of the disabled. No one knows what tomorrow brings and may I also add that their are young men and women in warzones fighting to protect us and many loose their lives their linbs, sight and so bedome disabled. It is the ignorant,the cowards and the bullies in our society that mock the disabled.

It seems sad to come across so many people who want to take time out of their lives to knock another human being.

In most advanced countries, the word 'blind' is used to cover a range of sight loss - from totally sightless to those who can't read print or the eye chart but have some remaining sight. There are people in all categories involved in photography for one reason or another. I use photography to extend what I can see, and it is not the random, unsystematic process some people imagine.

Sure the means of expression or recording in photography is to use light to create a 2-d image, though the results can also be made tactile, as Miss McKenzie pointed out above.

What about live and let live? There are surely more worrisome issues in the world than this.

This is sooooo typical of the whole ''we are all special'' culture in today's world. We can ALL be artists! Uh, huh. Right.

An artist makes choices to make art. Chance can play a role, of course, but nothing done ONLY by chance can be a real work of art! People who cannot see cannot make visual choices, cannot make INFORMED visual choices and can only depend on sighted people to tell them what the result looks like and in what ways it needs to be altered to make it look like it was purposefully made.

What utter rubbish, this blind artist stuff. If some idiots want to buy it, too bad for them, but it ain't art and it won't ever be unless some sighted artist comes along and appropriates it to use in their own original work.

NO NO NO NO!photography is the capturing of light onto a 2 dimensional surface, be it a screen or a piece of film. You see something, point the camera, take a picture.blind people cannot see, therefore they cannot be photographers.They can be painters, sketchers or sculptors for example as the movement of the artists hands is what creates the work, not selecting an arbitrary area of light. They could even appreciate a painting as many paintings have texturedeaf people can be musicians as sound is just vibrations in air and if you cannot hear these vibrations, you can still feel them.Anyone who reckons a blind person can be a photographer is taking the piss. a blind person cannot know what they are taking a photo of, they cannot know what the finished photo looks like.The only comparison I can think of is someone with no sense of smell making perfume, they have no knowledge of the ingredients or the finished product.

Sorry for the rant but I saw a blind french photographer on TV a few years ago and ever since, I've wanted to hunt him down and kill him for being such a pretencious wanker